Content

Technical Alphabet Soup

AI, ML, Chatbots—high-tech trends that sounded like technical alphabet soup. And I chose to ignore these menu offerings! I figured AI was like artificial sweetener—non-natural intelligence—and didn’t really apply to technical communicators, writers, or editors. Then, within the past month, I received two publications with articles about Artificial Intelligence (AI), ML (Machine Learning), and a side order of Chatbots. Since STC’s Intercom was one of those publications, I knew I had to find out how these high-tech trends affect what I do.

Definitions

AI

“AI is a type of “deep learning” that allows machines to process massive quantities of information on a very sophisticated level, allowing them to perform complex functions like facial recognition.” (Mordecai Holtz, “Mobile World Congress and AI,” B-Tank, March 2018).

ML

“ML is a subset of AI and is powering much of the development in the AI field” (Criteo Insights). ML “is the practice of using algorithms to parse data, learn from it, and then make a determination or prediction about something in the world” (blogs.nvidia.com). Michael Copeland explains that a machine is “trained” to perform tasks.

Using High-Tech Trends with Clients

Holtz points out two areas where AI is already in place: customer care and marketing. “The data will result in AI technology monitoring, analyzing, and organizing the consumer data to anticipate customer concerns.” And then “marketers will be able to leverage the extremely personal voice-activated devices to drive and solve the common issues associated after purchasing something.” AI will result in a personalized marketing experience.

These observations support Earley’s tips for tech writers to team up with the marketers. Look at the customer lifecycle. Understand the customer’s journey, what they are looking for, and “map out the possible questions that the customer may have at each step.” (Seth Earley, Intercom, January-February 2018, 14)

What’s Next?

AI, ML, and chatbots are not simply alphabet soup. These high-tech trends are meant to help us in getting our jobs done right and delivering the right content in the format the customer needs. I’m learning new ways of using my tools to help clients find the right solution—now with AI, ML, and chatbots—to serve their customers.

“The greatest challenge in actually using any of these emerging technologies is still the same—understanding and clearly defining the business need, and having the right data and content to fuel the technology engine.” (Seth Earley, Intercom, January-February 2018, 13.)

My takeaway?

I have more to learn about AI, ML, chatbots, and other high-tech trends.

You’ve drafted your content. Congratulations! Now it’s time to edit. But what type of content editing do you need?

Question 1—What is the state of your content?

Initial Draft. You wrote the content quickly and cleaned up the glaring mistakes. There may be grammar, punctuation, or spelling issues.

Middle-of-the-Road Draft. The content is in pretty good shape, having been through a few revisions.

Advanced Draft. You’ve checked all the facts and refined the text. The format matches your brand.

Question 2—What type of content editing do you need?

Copyediting

Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) says that “Copyeditors correct spelling, grammar, usage, and punctuation, check cross-references, and prepare the style sheets that guide consistency and accuracy across the manuscript.” The copyeditor looks at the mechanics and makes sure the style is consistent.

Developmental or Substantive Editing

During this process, editors rewrite and revamp the text. (EFA) In this stage, editors may move paragraphs or entire sections around. Or, editors may re-order a group of procedures to match the workflow.

Research/Fact-checking

As the writer, we’re sometimes more focused on expressing the point than verifying quotes or historical information. If we’ve included graphs or illustrations, we might figure we’ll check the copyright or ownership later. An editor is the writer’s impartial researcher who will check historical information or other facts for accuracy. Researching also involves obtaining permission to use the illustration, graph, or chart.

Technical Editing

Technical editors review “scientific, engineering, medical, or other complex documents for both language and content issues.” (STC Technical Editing SIG) These editors focus on the purpose and how the reader will use that content. As such, technical editors copyedit. They may also make substantive edits, revise, and proofread.

In other cases, technical editors move beyond editing the written word. They may also be called in to edit instructional video scripts and usability testing content.

Work on New Goals

Work on new goals—that’s task number two in my Task Summary (see December’s post). I figured that should be straight-forward task. Yet writing the daily, weekly, monthly, and annual goals, stumped me. I wrote elaborate goals that seemed impossible to achieve. I wanted manageable goals. What does that term really mean? So first, let’s define terms.

When do you hire a professional Proofreader? In Five Basic Tips to Proofread Your Content, I focused on proofing our own content, or self-proofing. We proofread to make sure our work is free of spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes. So why hire a professional proofreader?

Consider this: What happens if you aren’t confident in your proofing skills? Or this: Perhaps the proofing tools might miss something; how would I know?

To self-proof or hire a professional proofreader, that is the question!

And the related questions:

What precisely is proofreading?

When should I partner with a professional proofreader?

What is Proofreading?

The National Association of Independent Writers and Editors tells us that “Proofreading literally means ‘the reading and checking of proofs’ against the original.” Why? The purpose of this stage is “…to eliminate grammar problems, typos, spelling errors, and usage mistakes.” (Technical Communication Today, p. 8).

My colleague, Yocheved Frischman, provides additional detail. “Proofreading is the stage of editing an article, book, website or other piece of written text, to ensure that it is as error-free as possible and basically all the proverbial “I”s are dotted and “T”s crossed.”

What’s involved in Proofreading?

The proofreader focuses on grammar, spelling, and usage. This step comes after all the content and organizational edits are complete; by this point, the style format is set (Technical Communication Today, p. 499). In addition to spelling and grammar, a proofreader will also look at format. From Yocheved’s experience, “[a] proofreader is … the last eye on the work before it is published, and therefore may catch factual errors and inconsistencies.”

Being the “last eye” on the written word, the proofreader makes sure the entire piece has consistent format and style. Proofreaders have lots of experience with various style guides.

Basic: check for typos, repetitive words, and incorrect styles and checking “word-for-word against a marked-up draft and identify errors…”

Editorial Proofreading: “…errors in word usage (for instance, the use of to instead of too), hyphenation, and subject-verb agreement. If asked, editorial proofreaders can look for grammar problems (using which instead of that). They can also recommend changes in word choice or inappropriate punctuation. Editorial proofreading is usually done on material that has already been edited or reformatted.”

Proofreading activity…*

goes beyond the spell/grammar check tools. The manual proofreader catches errors that a tool may have missed:

Text in diagrams and flowcharts: make sure the text matches the source files, which might be in PowerPoint, Excel, or other formats

Check text and numbers in headers and footers, tables of content, indexes, cross-references; update the publication/copyright year

Why hire a Proofreader?

“A writer has seen their work over and over and has become desensitized to double words, to misspellings, and other errors. In addition, most writers and editors focus on a bigger picture and the proofreader focuses on the picayune details,” Yocheved offers. As writers, we make sure the article flows well and that our language choices enhance our work. We’re engrossed in the writing process. We may not think about quotation mark usage; when to use a semi-colon, or the number of spaces after a punctuation mark.

Additionally, “…when writers proofread their own work, their eyes skim over errors because their mind gets in the way and makes the eyes miss what is actually there. … writers know what they intend to convey, their eyes read one thing, but their brains translate it into what it should be. Hence, even experienced columnists and journalists are prone to such errors.” (See Why Writers Need Proofreaders.)

Professional proofreaders, educated in specific areas, search for these details.

And the details not only enhance our work; they make the publishing run smoothly. Yocheved reminds us that “these things [punctuation, grammar, spelling errors] can cause a lot of work when the material is sent to a typesetter.”

We want our content to look polished, as free of errors as possible. When thinking through whether or not to hire a professional proofreader, ask yourself these questions:

Do I really understand the style guide criteria?

Is attention to detail my strong suit?

Am I objective enough to look at this article and see its flaws?

Do the tools I use catch everything, even idioms?

The best way to help ourselves is to hire a professional proofreader.

Partner with a Proofreader

Think of a proofreader as your partner. You write compelling content. You want that content to look polished, and as free of errors as possible. The proofreader provides that service. Additionally, the proofreader provides the objective review for your article.

Yocheved suggests that “[s]ome writers hire a proofreader when they’ve finished the piece and they are ready to send it to a publisher. This should be after sending it to an editor, who will take a more global look at the work.”

If you’re the editor, generally you would bring in a proofreader as the last review before publication.

The Last Eyes

Consider Yocheved’s guiding thoughts:

One of the big principles in content creation is to have lots of eyes on the work. “The more eyes that there are on a work, the better chance there won’t be a mistake.”

And the corollary: “The more eyes you have, the better quality you’re going to produce.”

Yocheved offered this anecdote to emphasize the need for professional proofreaders. Before publishing a multi-volume legal work, the author wanted as many eyes on the content as possible; he wanted more than one proofreader, more than one editor. One of the copyeditors discovered a factual error that the author had inadvertently overlooked. Because of the diligent “last eyes,” the publisher could correct the error before printing.

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Can errors still happen even with professional proofreaders? Yes. Just ask any major publication. We lessen the chance of that happening when we ask objective and specifically-trained professionals to partner with us.

You’ve researched and crafted a motivational article. Although it’s ready to publish, you want to proofread for obvious errors. No sense in publishing a piece with spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes. Right?

What do you do?

Stop, look, and proofread!

Manually proofread your content.

Read each sentence out loud. Sometimes reading out loud will help you catch phrases or words that don’t fit. Or, you’ll hear the flow of the piece better than when you scan the words with your eyes.

Review for active v. passive voice.

♦Which voice best suits your content?

♦Passive voice may slow the reader down and it’s less compelling than active voice.

How’s your layout?

♦Check for consistency!

♦What format do you use for headings and lists?

♦Make sure you have a consistent format that makes your piece easy to read.

Look for commonly misspelled words and typos.

♦Automated tools don’t catch everything! Trial and Trail are both correct; but an attorney doesn’t go to trail.